In an interview with Rolling Stone, he said 'It's the purest love song that I've ever written. The song has Lightbody singing a plain melody over sparse guitars, which has an ever-building crescendo. Lead singer Gary Lightbody reportedly wrote the song when he became sober after a binge of white wine, in the garden of song producer Jacknife Lee's Kent cottage. The song is Snow Patrol's biggest-selling single to date, ending 2006 as that year's 14th best-selling single in the UK. 'Chasing Cars' was one of the songs that revealed the impact of legal downloads on single sales in the UK, selling consistently for years after its release. The song gained significant popularity in the US after being featured in the second season finale of the medical drama Grey's Anatomy, which aired on. It was released on 6 June 2006, in the United States and 24 July 2006, in the United Kingdom.

It was released as the second single from their fourth studio album, Eyes Open (2006). 'Chasing Cars' is a song by Northern Irish-Scottish alternative rock band Snow Patrol.

In the case of Snow Patrol, it would only be a matter of time before this iconic song hit this milestone. Nowadays, with a heavy shift towards streaming services, the popularity of a song is often measured more accurately with its streaming figures. Their classic hit ‘Chasing Cars’ is one of the latest songs to pass that magical milestone of 1 billion streams on Spotify.